For anyone interested in the league, Burke was on McCown’s podcast earlier this week. I haven’t listened but I suspect that conversation was informative
He's been involved in women's sports for some time.
Talked about going to some games here and there, and how he was offered the job.
Interesting that when asked who he conferred with before accepting, he mentioned Dave Nonis, Treiliving as 2 of the few people he talked to....
Sounds like the CBA was agreed upon before Burke was hired, but that it is very geared towards being player friendly.
It sounds like originally 6 teams with 24 games or so each.
International hockey breaks will be implemented into the schedule as its still the best way to promote the women's game.
Funny, Burke mentioned that the women have improved dramatically recently almost to a point that the first real sign that it's women playing the game is often the ponytails.....something I've thought of at times (especially Canada vs USA games).
While the women have gotten drastically better over the last couple of decades, men have slowly improved.
There isn't expectations of women being better or more commercially successful, but the goal is for them to be taken seriously and to have a proper and professional league to showcase what has been overlooked for far too long: women are just as capable of being entertaining as men.
I think Burke, while being gruff and a bit of an ass, is a very good pick to run this thing to success. Both his passion for the women's game and his connections to the NHL will compliment the talent on the ice.